Ranting

Gah! You could be forgiven if you’ve just read my earlier oh-the-Zen-of-cycling post that today was a perfect day to be out on two wheels. Indeed, in many ways it was . . . apart from the fact that the Mafia have obviously just increased the bounty on my head. In all I had three...
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One of the institutions of British cycling is the British Heart Foundation’s London to Brighton Ride . With 27,000 riders heading out to cause traffic mayhem (the roads on the route are closed to proper, tax-paying traffic…) the ride’s about 60 miles, and the event has been run since 1980. But actually, it’s a...
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Cycling safety is a pretty emotive issue. If you want to start a bun fight though, you’ve got to use the H-word: Helmet People say that helmets are just another part of the Culture of Fear that’s used to dissuade people off their bikes, and into nice, safe cars. Others point out that if you fall...
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This from the front page of today’s Whitley Bay News Guardian: Hit and rund driver held on remand A man charged in connection with a hit and run which left a Whitley Bay father fighting for his life has been remanded in custody. Peter Rowell is accused of driving the car which collided with cyclist Alistair Barnett...
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Almost a year ago, I want to see our local councilor with responsibility for transport to talk about cycling. In my dealings with the Cycling Projects Officer, I’d got the feeling that there was more going on than the council were being entirely open about. I thought that perhaps there was some sort of...
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Sometimes I dispair. I was working late in the office last week, when the only other guy left with me answered his phone: Hi. Yeah. I’m just leaving. I’ll call you from the car. Maybe I live in a particularly sheltered La-La Land, but I was actually shocked at this. So I asked if he was REALLY...
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Remember all those hilarious jokes about women drivers? They were the staple for comedians right up to some point in the ’80s, and revolved around the perception that operating a complex machine like a car was beyond the simple minds of the fairer sex, who were better suited to cooking dinner, producing heirs, and getting...
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If you come here often, you’ll probably know that I’m far from pro-helmet, and absolutely 100% anti helmet compulsion. Basically, the protection offered by bicycle helmets is fairly marginal in situations other than static falls (which is how they’re tested), and I’m a firm believer that compulsion does more to paint an image of...
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Every now and then the local or national papers here will go off on a rant about cyclists with no respect for the law riding on the pavement (sidewalk), terrorising innocent pedestrians. I’m troubled by this, because I think they’ve got a point. No, I have no problem with considerate, just-above-a-walking-pace cycling (which is actually illegal...
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This story was on the front page of the Evening Chronicle yesterday. Basically I’m writing about it here to make a point . . . HE WAS lucky to survive after smashing into a car while riding his bike. But schoolboy Sam Scott was then threatened with legal action for the damage he caused...
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